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The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. (vv. 8-9.)

Hello everyone! Have any of you ever been to a wedding? (Let them answer.) Sometimes weddings are small and simple, and sometimes they are really big and fancy, but they are always special, aren’t they? (Let them answer.)

Jesus told a story about a wedding, and boy, it was really special. Do you know why? (Let them answer.) The father of the boy getting married was a king! I’ll bet it was a really fancy wedding, don’t you? (Let them answer.)

The King sent fancy invitations to all of the most important people of the land and started getting everything ready. On the day of the wedding, some of the king’s servants cooked big steaks and covered the tables with huge cakes, while other servants took new wagons and went out to get all of the people who had been invited and give them a ride to the wedding. But something happened. Do you know what it was? (Let them answer.)

When the servants went to get the people who had been invited, those people said they did not want to go. Some of those people got really nasty and threw things at the servants and even killed some of them. That was sure a mean thing to do, wasn’t it? (Let them answer.)

When the king heard what happened he was really angry. He sent his army to stop the mean people and rescue his servants. And the king said, “Well if those people will not come to the wedding, I’ll show them.” And the king told his servants to go out in the streets and invite everyone they could find to come to the wedding. The king didn’t care if the people weren’t important, or if they were rich, or poor, or clean, or dirty. He invited them all to come to his son’s wedding to enjoy the feast. What do you think of that? (Let them answer.)

When the wedding started, all of those people came. But, when the king saw one of the men who had been invited, the king became furious. The king yelled, “How did you get in here?”, and he had his servants throw the man outside again. That was kind of weird, wasn’t it? (Let them answer.) The man was given an invitation, but when he came to the wedding he was thrown out. Do you have any idea why? (Let them answer.)

The story says that the man was thrown out because he did not wear wedding clothes. Do you know what that means? (Let them answer.) Some people think that means the man was so poor he didn’t have nice clothes to wear, but a lot of the guests were too poor to have nice clothes. I’ll tell you what I think happened.

Today when we have a wedding, people usually bring gifts for the bride and groom, don’t they? (Let them answer.) In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t like that. When there was a wedding, the people getting married gave gifts to all of the guests who came to the wedding. And because the King knew that some of the guests did not have fancy clothes, the gift the king gave was some very expensive clothes they could wear to the wedding. The King wanted the guests to feel special, so he gave them a gift to make them look and feel special on this very special day.

And everyone came to the wedding wearing their new wedding clothes. Everyone except who? (Let them answer.) Yes, everyone except that one man. I wonder why he didn’t wear the new clothes? (Let them answer.) The story doesn’t tell us why, but the man didn’t wear them.

But why do you think the king was so angry? (Let them answer.) Because since the man did not wear the special gift from the king, he was telling the king that he did not think the wedding was special at all. He would be happy to come to the party and eat the king’s food, but he didn’t care about the wedding or care about the king at all. That was kind of mean, wasn’t it? (Let them answer.)

Why do you think Jesus told this story? (Let them answer.)

I think Jesus was reminding us that we are like those people in the street who got the invitations. God didn’t invite us to be here because we are rich, or powerful, or more important than anyone else. God invited us to be here because God wants us to know that we are special because God created us.

I have a gift for you to help us remember that God loves you and invited us to be here. (Give each child the gift to wear and let them respond if they want to.)

This gift is from me, but God gave each of us a gift, too. But God didn’t give us some fancy clothes to wear. God gave us a different gift. What do you think that gift is? (Let them answer.)

God gave us each other. And God wants us to remember how special we all are and take care of each other because we are all so special and God loves each one of us.

If we refuse to take care of each other, if we refuse to use God’s gift, we are acting like the man who came to the wedding without wearing his wedding clothes. We are telling God that we don’t think being with God is all that special. Let’s say a short prayer to ask God to always remind us just how special it is to have the gift of being able to care about and for each other.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for helping us learn how important it is to care for other people. Please forgive us when we forget to do that.